20 facts you might not know about 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings'

As lore has it, Stan Lee was interested in a Shang-Chi film in the 1980s. Lee talked with Linda and Brandon Lee (um, no relation) about it, with the intent of having Brandon star. Brandon is the son of Bruce Lee, who had been the visual inspiration for Shang-Chi in the comics in the 1970s.

In 2001, the film The Hands of Shang-Chi was announced, with Stephen Norrington as the director. A couple of years later, in 2003, DreamWorks took over developing the movie, with Bruce C. McKenna writing and Yuen Woo-Ping replacing Norrington as the director. Ang Lee even came on as a producer, but the film never came to fruition.

A few times in putting together these pieces, Jessica Gao’s name has come up. She kept being brought in to pitch on Marvel films but never got one of the gigs. Gao pitched on Shang-Chi but did not get the job. However, clearly, Marvel must have liked Gao. She was given multiple opportunities. Eventually, everything came together for Gao, the head writer on the first season of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

As comic-book stories take up more and more of the movie landscape, it will become more common for people to work on Marvel and DC films. One person who has already done that is Dave Callaham, who has co-credit on the screenplay and co-credit on the "story by" front. He first broke through co-writing The Expendables, but he is also one of the writers of 2020’s Wonder Woman 1984.

Deborah Chow, Alan Yang, Destin Daniel Cretton, and Justin Tipping were the directors considered for Shang-Chi. While Chow had directing credit on Marvel shows Iron First and Jessica Jones, Cretton got the job on Shang-Chi.

While Shang-Chi is the leading role in the film that shares his name, the production took a little while to find the right actor for their protagonist. It was actually Awkwafina who was the first actor cast in the movie, allowing her to do chemistry reads with a few different potential Shang-Chi actors.

A lot of actors were considered for Shang-Chi, with the one prerequisite being that the actors auditioning were of Chinese descent. Lewis Tan, who had been in Iron Fist, was in the running, but Simu Liu ended up with the role. This was surprising, as Liu was primarily known, if known at all, for being in the main cast of the Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience. He had been in one film prior, Pacific Rim. He was an extra.

Marvel wanted Jessica Henwick for the role of Xialing in Shang-Chi. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. wanted her for Bugs in The Matrix Resurrections. She was reportedly given an ultimatum. Henwick went with Resurrections, partly because she had played Colleen Wing in Iron Fist and hoped to be able to play the role again.

Maybe Henwick could have gotten away with playing Xialing and Wing in the end. Michelle Yeoh, a staple of action films and martial arts movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was cast in Shang-Chi. This was despite the fact she had previously played Aleta Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Granted, that was a glorified cameo, but even so, Yeoh has two MCU roles.

The Ten Rings were first mentioned as a group in Iron Man. At the time, Marvel had briefly considered including the Mandarin in that film but figured they should hold off on Iron Man’s most famous villain. Eventually, he does appear, sort of, in Iron Man 3 , though it is revealed that this “Mandarin” is an actor named Trevor Slattery, who had been hired as a front. Ben Kingsley reappeared as Slattery in Shang-Chi, following up on the events of Marvel’s short film All Hail the King, which sees Trevor kidnapped by the real Mandarin.

Shang-Chi’s father in this film is Xu Wenwu, leader of the Ten Rings, known to some as the Mandarin. In the comics, Shang-Chi’s father is different. He is now known as Zheng Zu, but back in the day, Shang-Chi’s father was a character named Fu Manchu, who was, unsurprisingly, problematic.

Seeing Wong show up in Shang-Chi is not that surprising, as he tends to pop up here and there in the MCU. However, some may have been surprised to see him fighting Abomination, who had not been seen since Marvel’s forgotten The Incredible Hulk. Tim Roth played Emil Blonsky (aka Abomination) in that film and did an uncredited voice cameo.

The addition of Abomination’s cameo in Shang-Chi arrived late in the proceedings. Gao was already working on She-Hulk and had wanted to include Abomination in her show. As such, to help people remember the existence of Abomination and get them excited, they decided to toss him in Shang-Chi.

Liu ended up doing a lot of his own stunts, given that Shang-Chi is not a mask-wearing superhero. In addition to putting on 10 pounds of muscle, the actor versed himself in martial arts. While Liu was already adept at taekwondo and had a background in gymnastics, he trained in Muy Thai, Krav Maga, jiu-jitsu, boxing, and more for the movie.

Shang-Chi started filming in Australia in February 2020. We probably don’t need to remind you how early 2020 went. In March, studios were beginning to shut down productions due to the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic, at which point Cretton decided to isolate himself and get himself tested. He had just had a newborn baby. Before he could return, production was shut down on the movie. The movie would begin shooting again in August and finish filming at the end of October. Needless to say, the release of Shang-Chi was pushed as well.

During post-production, it was decided to add the scene with Bruce Banner and Carol Danvers to try and further explain the Ten Rings and Shang-Chi’s place in the MCU. It also led to a reunion between Cretton and Brie Larson. Larson had previously been in three other films directed by Cretton.

Cretton and Callaham liked the idea of Morris but figured that the character would be shot down. While different iterations and looks were considered, Callaham remained skeptical that Morris would make the cut. He bet Cretton that if Morris made the final film, he’d get a tattoo. (He got the tattoo.) 

Shang-Chi was released over the Labor Day weekend of 2021. As the film industry was still dealing with the fallout of the pandemic, Marvel movies had an advantage in terms of competition. Shang-Chi was the No. 1 film domestically for four-straight weeks, though with lower numbers than it would have made in more typical times. The movie made $224.5 million domestically and $432.2 million worldwide, a Labor Day weekend film record.

Shang-Chi was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects but did not win. It did win a few awards, though. Simu Liu won a People’s Choice Award for Action Movie Star, and the film won for Action Movie of 2021. Meanwhile, Awkwafina won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Film.

In December 2021, it was announced that Cretton would write and direct a sequel to Shang-Chi. While the film has been announced, the sequel was not included when Marvel announced its slate of film releases through 2026. Either the movie will be squeezed in there somewhere, or we may have to wait a while for the second Shang-Chi film.